THE ROOF OF THE WORLD.*

THE limelight photograph taken in the council-chamber of the Potala after the Treaty had been signed was the seal upon the grave of the last Asian mystery. We know all about the city to which for generations the hearts of adventurers have turned, and the reality is a little dingy. The sentimentalist, who is in all of us, cannot repress a regret, which that other part of our being that is political and scientific will instantly dismiss as foolish. And yet the Tibet Expedition has left mysteries and to spare behind it. We know the straight road to the capital, but we know singularly little about its environs. The expedition which went to Gartok, and has just reached Simla by way of the Sutlej Valley, will tell us something about Western Tibet; but the lawer reaches of the Tsang-po till • (1) The Unveiling of Lhasa. By Edmund Candler. London Edward Arnold. [15s. net.]—(2) To Lhassa at bast. By Powell Millington. Loudon : Smith. Elder, and Co. [3s. 6d. net.]—(3) Tibet and Nepal. Painted and Described by A. Henry Savage Landor. London : A. and C. Black. [20s. net.]

it enters Assam and becomes the Brahmaputra, and the wild country between Lhasa and the southern limits of Sven Hedin's explorations, are yet a sealed book. We share Mr.

Candler's regret that this unrivalled opportunity of following the Brahmaputra down to the Assam marches was not seized by the Indian Government, for it would have added a real geographical triumph to an expedition otherwise rather poor in scientific results.

The Mission itself was as romantic an enterprise as modern history can show. Apart from the mystery of its goal, the mere physical difficulties seize on the imagination. This little force with guns and transport climbed up out of the hot valleys into the clouds, and for months waged war on the highest tableland on earth. And the curious thing is the nature of this fighting We should have expected in moun- tain warfare the same kind of engagements as our troops fought in Natal,—long-distance rifle fire and attacks upon fortified hill-tops. Of this there was a certain amount, as at Red Idol Gorge and the Karo-la ; but most of the serious encounters were like mediaeval street fighting, and took place in narrow passages and chambers of old jongs and monasteries. The expedition surely afforded the two strangest types of engagement in modern times,—the taking of the Gyangtse monastery, when "bands of desperate swordsmen were found in knots under trap-doors and behind!

sharp turnings," and our troops fought in "a perfect warren of dark cells and rooms " ; and the second fight on the

Karo-la., when the Ghoorkas performed feats of rock-climbing which would have done credit to any Alpine club, and had a scrimmage in a cave at an altitude of nineteen thousand feet.

The whole work of the Mission had a completeness and a perfection of method which are too rare in our frontier enterprises. It had abundant political justification, to our mind, and, on the whole, it succeeded in its aim. It solved an exceedingly difficult transport problem, partly by luck, but'.

largely by good management. It was singularly humane in' its conduct ; it established the friendliest relations with the country people ; and, in spite of one or two regrettable losses,

it had a small casualty-list. In face of unknown perils and

real and present hardships, the whole expedition seems to have been characterised by a good humour and camaraderie not

always to be found in such adventures. Both the military and political sides did their work admirably, and if we give much credit to the military commander for the transport organisation and the engagements, we must equally recog- nise the brilliant talent which Colonel Younghusband showed in the endless durbars with the Lamas, and especially the patience and tact which alone made the Treaty possible :-

" It would be impossible," says Mr. Candler, " to find another man in the British Empire with a personality so calculated to impress the Tibetans. He sat through every durbar a monument of patience and inflexibility, impassive as one of their own Buddhas. Priests and councillors found that appeals to his mercy were hopeless. He, too, had orders from his King to go to Lhasa ; if he faltered, his life also was at stake ; decapitation would await him on his return. That was the impression he purposely gave them. It curtailed palaver. How in the name of all their Buddhas were they to stop such a man ? "

Mr. Candler, who accompanied the expedition as Dazlt Mail correspondent, has written a book of remarkable interest. That, indeed, was assured by its subject ; but the manner of writing is as admirable as the matter. Other books on the expedition may be written fuller of detailed information, but none can be more thoroughly imbued with its romance. After a clear summary of the political justification, he takes the reader in a swift narrative over the Jelap-la to the

Chumbi Valley, and thence to the tableland past Phari Jong and Tuna to the action at Guru, where he was severely wounded. This compelled him to go back for a little to Darjeeling, and Mr. Henry Newman continues the tale with two excellent chapters on the operations of Gyangtse. Mr. Candler caught up the expedition just before it left that

place, and accompanied it to Lhasa. In a book so full of interest it is bard to select, but we specially commend his.

chapter on the Dalai Lama and the romance of his moonlight, flitting. He has also much valuable comment on the signifi- cance of the Treaty and the practical results of the Mission.

Like most people who wont to Lhasa, he strongly advocates the carrying out of Lord Curzon's original ,policy, and maintaining in that city a British Resident with troops.

Though he fared badly at their hands, he has much sympathy with the Tibetans, whom he regards as a brave, simple people, easily led, and asking nothing but permission to live at ease. The later fighting showed that they were gallant soldiers, and one cannot but regret that so many should have fallen victims to the impossible politics of their leaders. For the Lamas, on the other hand, he has no friendliness. They are patty tyrants who have debased the pure Buddhist faith, and preach exclusiveness from political and not from religious motives. One of Mr. Candler's most notable gifts is a power of vivid, sympathetic delineation of scenery. There are many passages in his book which are delightful pictures, such as the first sight of the Tsang-po Valley and the account of the Yamdok Lake. But the best is his description of the Chumbi Valley around Tatung in the first flush of a Himalayan spring, which is of a nature to rouse grave stirrings of the heart in the most staid and elderly breasts.

Major Millington in his little book has accomplished a difficult task with much suocess. None of the graver aspects of the adventure appear in his pages, and very little of the subtler romance. He has aimed at producing a light- hearted, slangy chronicle of the road, and in the best of spirits he takes us along with his baggage-mules over the high passes, treats us to many whimsical adventures, and is so minute in his details about food and drink and accommodation that we close his book with a feeling of having been rather chilly and having an abnormal appetite for dinner. His jokes are nearly always good, and they are very numerous : and it is a triumph of a sort to have given so mysterious a journey the atmosphere of everyday life. On one point Major Millington has much of interest to tell. He was a transport and commissariat officer, and on that branch of the Service lay the chief burden of the expedition. In his pages we realise vividly the ceaseless vigilance and the endless preoccupation of the officer who has to feed man and beast in a poor country.

A very different work is Mr. Savage Landor's account of his travels in Western Nepal and a little way inside the Tibetan border. Of the beauty of his illustrations there can be no doubt, but it is difficult to know how to describe his narrative. He travelled only on the outskirts of the country, and he makes some obvious mistakes; but he writes with an assumption of the highest expert knowledge. In almost every chapter he is chastising the haughty Nepalese, or with placid courage boxing the ears of some Tibetan marauder. This swashbuckling air does not reassure the reader; but when it comes to climbing snow mountains our imagination falters far behind him. He ascended the Lumpa peak in Nepal, which he puts at 23,490 ft., and claims in consequence the " world's record " (hideous phrase !) ; but, even if his figures are correct, this would not be true, since Kabru, which Mr. Graham climbed, is several hundred feet higher. Mr. Landor says he made the ascent in thin London shoes, a serge suit, a straw hat, and carrying a Malacca cane ! He seems to have suffered no discomfort from the altitude, and he pours the vials of his scorn upon Alpine clubs and all climbing appliances like ropes and ice-axes. When we remember Sir Martin Conway's sufferings at a lower height in the Karakoram with a band of trained climbers, and the various records of the ascent of Aconcagua, we can only bow our heads in the presence of this portent among mountaineers.